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Re: Beijing Olympics thread

Originally Posted by 15fan

I'll take the opposite approach. I don't think Phelps' story can be over-covered. What he's attempting to do is beyond freakish. 8 golds in the same Olympics? That's twice what Jesse Owens did in 1936 and what Carl Lewis did in 1984. That one-ups Spitz in an era when the internationalization of training and competing makes it unfathomable that one individual could be the best in the world at 8 different combinations of distances / strokes.

I think there also exists the very real possibility that Phelps pocketing 8 golds will do for the sport of swimming what Jordan did for basketball in the 90s, and Tiger Woods has done for golf in the 00s - junior swimming programs all over the country (and world?) will attract kids like never before.

Mark Spitz did the same for swimming when he won the seven gold medals. This poster hung on my brother's bedroom wall and several swim teams, including the one I was on, used these suits during the mid seventies.

So, I can personally attest to the effects of what Phelps is trying to accomplish.

Re: Beijing Olympics thread

The other thing that's really striking me about the swimming this go-round is just how big the swimmers are. Not big as in muscular, but big as in tall. Phelps is what - 6'4"? Grevers is 6'8". That seems to be the norm moreso than I ever remember. Just a decade ago, there would have been little chance that those guys strayed from football, basketball, or pitching in baseball. Swimming was for the 6'-ish guys, not the 6'6"-ish guys.

But now with the face that Phelps is putting on swimming, and the associated money that he's inevitably attracting to the sport, I think you'll see more tall kids gravitate to the pool, or stick with the pool when they hit that growth spurt.

Sure it's going to an extreme, but maybe the next Yao Ming won't be Yao Ming on the hardwood, but will opt for the pool instead. A 7'6" world class swimmer?

If the Chinese want to win the medal count at future games, they should stick their next young Yao in a pool and teach him to freestyle and backstroke. That's what it's going to take for someone down the road to approach the medal count that Phelps is going to have by the time these games are over.

Re: Beijing Olympics thread

Originally Posted by 15fan

The other thing that's really striking me about the swimming this go-round is just how big the swimmers are. Not big as in muscular, but big as in tall. Phelps is what - 6'4"? Grevers is 6'8". That seems to be the norm moreso than I ever remember. Just a decade ago, there would have been little chance that those guys strayed from football, basketball, or pitching in baseball. Swimming was for the 6'-ish guys, not the 6'6"-ish guys.

But now with the face that Phelps is putting on swimming, and the associated money that he's inevitably attracting to the sport, I think you'll see more tall kids gravitate to the pool, or stick with the pool when they hit that growth spurt.

Sure it's going to an extreme, but maybe the next Yao Ming won't be Yao Ming on the hardwood, but will opt for the pool instead. A 7'6" world class swimmer?

If the Chinese want to win the medal count at future games, they should stick their next young Yao in a pool and teach him to freestyle and backstroke. That's what it's going to take for someone down the road to approach the medal count that Phelps is going to have by the time these games are over.

And people wonder why there are no great white Americans in the NBA. they are all swimming.

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